New Korean Super Hero Luna Snow Arrives in 'Marvel Future Fight'

Last year, Marvel Games and Netmarble added the original Marvel character Sharon Rogers — an alternate reality daughter of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter who took up the mantle of Captain America — to “Marvel Future Fight.” The “Marvel Future Fight” community swiftly embraced this new star and she quickly became the most popular female hero in the game’s entire roster. Building on that success, Netmarble is proud to announce the debut of Marvel Future Fight’s newest original character, Korean pop star turned Super Hero, Luna Snow.

Responding to local audiences’ request for culturally resonating characters that are also authentically Marvel, Korean developer Netmarble Games Corp worked closely with Marvel to develop Luna Snow’s powers, personality, visuals, origin and ongoing story.

“Since Captain America Sharon Rogers’ debut, we continued our push to introduce new and exciting original characters into ‘Marvel Future Fight.’ Our creative process began when Netmarble Monster expressed an interest in debuting an ice magician character that plays both the role of healing and dealing damage,” said Marvel Games Senior Producer Danny Koo. “We worked closely with Netmarble Monster’s art director Jee-Hyung to come up with Luna Snow’s look, which includes an iconic emblem consisting of a half-moon crest that mirrors an ice symbol on her jacket, belt buckles, and of course, her necklace. Her icicle earrings and differently colored eyes, which complete her half-dark and half-light ice look, were meticulously designed with modern K-Pop culture in mind. It was over a bowl of ramen with Bill Rosemann that her hero name popped up into my mind! Seol Hee (Luna Snow’s civilian name) roughly translates to “Snow Hope” and embodies the characteristics of a hero who will step up and help people in need.”

“Marvel has the greatest fans around the world, and they deserve heroes that they can not only cheer on as they fight evil, but also connect with on a personal level,” said Marvel Games Executive Creative Director Bill Rosemann. “From her underdog beginnings as a young woman trying to realize her dreams, to her noble sacrifice which results in her gaining phenomenal powers, Luna Snow is a strong modern warrior who represents everyone who struggles with great obstacles but still rises to face their challenges. We are honored to join our friends at Netmarble and once again add another new star to the Marvel Universe!”

“We are very proud that the second original character born of our game, ‘Marvel Future Fight,’ is of Korean nationality,” said Netmarble Monster and “Marvel Future Fight” Art Director Jee-Hyung Lee. “While Luna Snow began her career as a K-pop artist, she is expressed as a strong, charismatic, and sophisticated female warrior in our game. As a hero of dualistic nature, holding the power of both White and Dark Ice, we believe Luna Snow is sure to make the new year ‘Icy Hot’!”

The Story of Luna Snow

Seol Hee was an aspiring singer hoping to use her voice and dancing skills to earn enough money to take care of her elderly grandmother, who has raised Seol since the tragic deaths of her parents. When the science-obsessed organization known as A.I.M. ambushed a Stark Industries event where Seol was performing, Seol bravely attempted to defend the attendees, resulting in A.I.M. soldiers locking her in a hi-tech storage freezer. While trying to escape, Seol was exposed to the contents of an advanced cold-fusion energy experiment, which unexpectedly granted her control over frozen elements. Using her newfound powers to fight back, Seol surprised and defeated the A.I.M. forces’ attack. Dubbed “Luna Snow” by the press, Seol’s heroic actions made her an overnight sensation, and she now uses her talents and powers as a part-time pop star and full-time Super Hero!

To celebrate this historic event, Netmarble will open a pre-registration event from January 10 to January 23 where players can sign up to learn more about this unique new character. By pre-registering, players will unlock in-game crystals and other rewards. The rewards increase in value as the total number of pre-registered players increases–so the more people that sign up, the more everyone gets rewarded!

After the pre-registration period has ended, “Marvel Future Fight” will unveil Luna Snow’s story and video, sharing Marvel’s newest Super Hero with the rest of the world.

Bringing together iconic Marvel Super Heroes and Super Villains from different eras and realities, along with signature LEGO humor, the latest epic adventure “LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2” transports players into a cosmic battle across a myriad of Marvel locations ripped from time and space into the incredible open hub world of Chronopolis. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is available for PlayStation®4, Xbox One®,Nintendo Switch™, and PC.

Tune in this weekend as WWE superstar John Cena returns as host of Nickelodeon’s 2018 Kids’ Choice Awards to celebrate kids’ favorites across movies, television, music and digital, on Saturday, March 24, at 8pm ET/PT, live from the Forum in Inglewood, California!

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Piecing Together Marvel Puzzle Quest: Valkyrie

Published Mar 19, 2018
By Ben Chabala

This Asgardian warrior brings her sword skills to the hit mobile game this week!

Not enough awesome Asgardians in your roster yet? Well, the Hela-fighting heroine from Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Ragnarok,” Valkyrie, slashes her way into “Marvel Puzzle Quest” this week. Armed with a keen blade and some serious attitude, she’ll make mincemeat of her foes in no time. D3 Go! Senior Producer Josh Austin was kind enough to break down the vicious Valkyrie, so if you need more info, look no further!

Marvel.com: Valkyrie’s just a tad late to the “Ragnarok” party but I’m glad she finally gets to show off her sword skills in game. I imagine the team’s excited too!

Josh Austin: We are definitely excited to bring Valkyrie (Asgardian Warrior) into Marvel Puzzle Quest as our latest 4-Star character. The Marvel movies keep getting better and “Thor: Ragnarok” has a plethora of great characters! The team has wanted to bring in Valkyrie for a while, so they were happy to finally bring her out and right now is a good time with the home entertainment release of “Ragnarok.”

Marvel.com: We already have a super bad lady sword-slinger in Gamora, what’d you all do to make sure Valkyrie feels different from the green-skinned Guardian?

Josh Austin: Gamora is definitely a tough assassin, but she’s focused on destroying her target and moving to the next. But Valkyrie actually has an attack that will move to the next target if the first target dies during her onslaught! Valkyrie also deals extra damage if the enemy team doesn’t have AP, so teaming her up with AP stealers is a different strategy than pairing Gamora with people that help gain control over purple tiles.

Marvel.com: Actually lets dig into her kit. How does Valkyrie bring the pain?

Josh Austin: Her first power is called Dragonfang Fury and it costs 11 Red AP. The ability will deal damage 3 consecutive times or 5 times at power level 5. If this ability downs an enemy, remaining attacks will continue to the next enemy. Each individual attack can be modified by Friendly Strike tiles.

Her second attack is called Bounty Hunter and it’s a Black Passive power. For this ability, she creates a Black Countdown tile that targets a random enemy. If that enemy is downed or takes a certain amount of damage before the Countdown tile expires, this tile is removed and the player gets 4 AP in their strongest color while destroying 4 AP in the enemy’s strongest color.

Her last Power is called The Best Defense… and it’s a passive Yellow ability. For this power, she protects her allies from evil by fighting back even harder. Whenever an ally takes a specific amount of damage, create Yellow Strike tiles. As long as the enemy has less then 8 AP in a color, friendly matches in that color deal extra damage.

Marvel.com: I love The Best Defense… ability! Quick clarification, if an enemy were to use a team strike ability, say Khamala Khan’s Embiggened Bash, would Valkyrie create 4 Strike Tiles?

Josh Austin: That’s correct! Her The Best Defense… ability will fire twice and create 4 Strike Tiles if both her teammates are hit at the same time. If you’re expecting some heavy team damage from the enemy, Valkyrie’s an awesome pick to make the most of a bad situation.

Marvel.com: And who does she fight best with? What kind of teams should we be picking her into?

Josh Austin: Valkyrie is available this Thursday, March 22, and she will have a “S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Event” between March 22 and 29. Her store will be called “Valkyrie & Friends” between March 22 and 30. Her release debut is the Simulator that runs from March 22 and 26. Her featured event is “Thick as Thieves” that runs between March 25 and 30. And finally her Versus Tournament titled “Scrapper 142” starts on March 25 and ends March 28.

Pick up Valkyrie hereand stay tuned to Marvel.com for more “Marvel Puzzle Quest” news and interviews.

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Entering Contest of Champions: Bishop

Published Mar 15, 2018
By Ben Chabala

This mutant is ready to challenge some Sentinels on Battlerealm!

Following close on the rocket-fueled heels of the Sentinels, Bishop, X-Man and energy manipulator extraordinaire, enters Battlerealm ready to do some hunting of his own. We talked to Kabam Art Director Gabriel Frizzera and Game Designer Shane O’Connor about Bishop’s new look, his abilities, and why you need him on your “Marvel Contest of Champions” roster.

Marvel.com: We just saw some nasty Sentinels crash land on Battlerealm, is Bishop here to turn them to slag?

Gabriel Frizzera: Or die trying. He came from the alternate future where a corrupt mutant elite dominated The Contest of Champions, and used the Sentinels to enslave not only mutants that disagreed with them, but all Champions. He thinks Sabertooth is the key to stop that from happening, so he’s traveling to our present timeline to eliminate him.

Gabriel Frizzera: Yeah, there’s lots to love in the 90s versions of the X-Men, but some stuff didn’t… age so well. We updated the hair to a dreadlock ponytail, filled the beard a bit more, and changed the scarf to a more current version. But we kept the rest like the classic from the 90s.

Marvel.com: Bishop’s mutant gift is all about absorbing kinetic energy and redirecting it. How does that play out in the game?

Shane O’Connor: Bishop is a master of absorbing energy, and he can do so from a variety of sources. Kinetic Energy is absorbed by performing a well-timed block. Other forms of energy, such as abilities like Shock or Coldsnap and attacks like beams or lightning, are passively absorbed at all times. All this stored energy fuels Bishop’s Power Meter and magnifies his Special Damage to record-breaking levels.

Marvel.com: Ok let’s talk about all of Bishop’s abilities. What kind of powers does he get from Foresight and how does that factor into the rest of his kit?

Shane O’Connor: Bishop has the unique ability to maintain his Power Meter from fight to fight. With a bit of Foresight, Bishop starts the fight with a unique bonus to help him deal with specific scenarios, or to simply arrive on the scene ready to explode. The most niche bonus powers up his block to help against specific opponents, while the most threatening bonus is a force multiplier on his Special Damage.

Marvel.com: What do his team-up bonuses look like? Who does he fight best beside?

Shane O’Connor: Bishop is best paired with Psylocke for some extra control over the enemies’ Power Meter. Allies that deal large amounts of energy damage, such as Storm or Doctor Strange, are also able to use that energy to charge up Bishop in advance so he starts the fight with Power and bonus Special Damage – some for each teammate that triggers the stackable Energy Conduit Synergy.

Marvel.com: When do we get to play with the energy absorbing mutant for ourselves?

Shane O’Connor: Bishop time-travels into The Contest by way of the Era of Strife, Product of Oppression, and Agony of Memory Arenas today, March 15.

Battle an Army of Hulks in ‘Marvel Avengers Academy’

World War Hulk is coming to the mobile game!

In the world of “Marvel Avengers Academy,” Thanos continues to make his way toward Earth—and leaders across the world are preparing for the worst.

In the United States, the government decided to re-create the experiment that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk, thinking that an army of Hulks could help fend off the might of the Mad Titan! But, of course, the original experiment was never intended to create the Hulk in the first place, and this one didn’t go as planned either. Now with a legion of rampaging Hulks on their doorstep—led by a familiar foe—the heroes of “Marvel Avengers Academy” have an incredible problem to deal with if they want to be ready when Thanos arrives.

We grabbed a few minutes with Allen Warner, Lead Narrative Designer at TinyCo, to get every smashing detail of this new World War Hulk event.

Marvel.com: As the players and development team alike settle into the world of Avengers Academy 2.0, should we expect to see any tweaks or changes to this event in comparison to the Black Panther event?

Allen Warner: Absolutely. We’re constantly listening to our players, and will be regularly making changes and additions to create the best experience possible in this event, and everything we do moving forward. One example in this World War Hulk event is that we doubled the amount of narrative content from our previous event because players wanted more story and character interactions. In the near future, we’ll be adding exciting new features, new ways to recruit your favorite heroes, and a whole lot more.

Marvel.com: The government just loves their super soldier experiments. Why are they trying yet again to recreate Bruce Banner’s Hulk experiment-gone-wrong?

Allen Warner: The imminent arrival of Thanos has the entire planet panicked. The government knows they aren’t capable of defending against Thanos, and they don’t want to be completely dependent on the Avengers, so they attempt to create their own army of super heroes by replicating the Hulk’s transformation—because as we all know, he’s the strongest there is. They use the Los Diablos Missile Base where Hulk’s transformation took place to create a new army of gamma-powered superhumans. Unfortunately, they quickly lose control of the new Hulks, and they tear across the planet, led by the baddest of the bunch, Abomination. The government tries to make up for its mistake by attacking not only their new Hulks, but all of the original Hulks, with an army of knockoff Hulkbusters, based on Iron Man’s original design. Things get even worse when Abomination decides to use the missile base for his own purposes, and takes the government’s plan to the extreme by launching a series of “gamma bombs” that will turn everyone on the planet into a crazed Hulk.

We thought it would be really cool to do a Hulk-centric event around this time since Amadeus Cho’s “World War Hulk II” story is set to launch and Bruce Banner is returning to comics in IMMORTAL HULK. Hulk and the extended Hulk family of characters have always been a huge part of our world, so it’s always great to have stories centered around them and everything that makes each of them so unique and fun. We took this opportunity to include and celebrate every Hulk related character in our world, so you can expect to see Amadeus Cho, She-Hulk, Leader, Red She-Hulk, and many more.

Marvel.com: In order to defeat this army of new Hulks, which new heroes will the Academy recruit?

Allen Warner: The Avengers will be getting some help from longtime Hulk supporting characters, Skaar and Rick Jones. Skaar is Hulk’s son from another planet in another universe, who has arrived to help his extended Hulk family battle Abomination and the Hulkbusters. He has some really fun interactions with all of the other Hulks running around campus, as well as heroes from the original World War Hulk storyline, and some awesome animations that showcase what makes him so different from the rest of the Hulks.

Rick Jones is Hulk’s longtime sidekick, and has been a part of the Avengers Academy universe since our original Gamma Event in the form of A-Bomb, but this is Rick Jones from the Ultimate Universe who has some insane powers, and has taken on roles reminiscent of everyone from Nova to Captain Marvel at various times. He’s very different from A-Bomb in terms of powers and personality, so it was a lot of fun to have him interact with his self from another universe, along with our Captain Marvel, our Hulk, and many more.

Marvel.com: For those players who missed out on previous Hulk-related events, will any previous heroes be available to recruit again?

Allen Warner: Yes, we’ll be bringing back both Hulk and Red Hulk, and will be adding new combat animations and stories for both.

Marvel.com: Generally, it takes a Hulk to beat a Hulk. Can we expect the Hulks currently attending Avengers Academy to suit up in special gear for this fight? Any unexpected heroes joining them?

Allen Warner: Yes, there will be three amazing new outfits for Hulk, Skaar, and Vision. The Vision outfit is a direct callback to a classic from the comics, while the Hulk and Skaar outfits take inspiration from various looks and storylines to create something brand new. Our art team once again did an incredible job with these, and I think people are going to think they’re really cool. Vision may seem like an odd fit, but it was a great opportunity to touch on what he’s been up to, and tease a little bit of what’s coming soon. Vision has been busy working on a secret project to help bring a very special hero to the campus, and with his work complete, he can turn his attention to helping the Hulks.

Marvel.com: Can you give us a taste of what’s on the horizon beyond World War Hulk?

Allen Warner: While Abomination and his army of Hulks have been wrecking cities across the globe, and Thanos’s arrival has everyone panicked, a criminal mastermind new to the world of Avengers Academy has seized the opportunity to start a war amongst New York’s most powerful crime families. It’s a battle of various villains that threatens to engulf the whole city, and the Avengers will need help from Jessica Jones, new antiheroes, and old friends to save the day.

Marvel.com: It’s International Women’s Day and Jessica returns for the second season of “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” on Netflix. It’s natural we’d see the Power Woman make her way to “Marvel Puzzle Quest.”

Josh Austin: The entire team are big fans of the show on Netflix, so it’s super cool to bring her to the game as the newest 5-star character in time for her Season 2 return! She’s known for being tough and irritable on her Netflix show, but definitely someone you do not want to cross or mess with as she will quickly show you the error of your ways!

She will be featured in a limited Jessica Jones event that the player can earn tokens for between March 8 – 12 in the Avengers vs. Ultron event. Our friends at Marvel Insider have made things a little sweeter by offering 30,000 Insider Points for anyone that scores 500,000 or more points in the Avengers vs. Ultron event. Visit Marvel Insider for more details.

Marvel.com: What does a 5-star Jessica Jones bring to the table?

Josh Austin: Jessica Jones was designed like her show counterpart, she is a no-funny business character. Each of her powers deal damage or helps you deal even greater damage. She isn’t someone who will try and help or make things cozy, instead she will slam her door hard even if it means replacing her window again-and-again or take pictures to find and exploit weaknesses, then body-check you. Don’t try and make her smile, she hates that.

Marvel.com: Jessica isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and get up in your face. How does her abilities in “Puzzle Quest” reflect that?

Josh Austin: Her first ability is called Defenestrate and it costs 9 Red AP. This power deals 11,331 damage at level 450 and power level 5. This power also creates 5 random Green, Yellow or Purple Strike tiles of strength 373.

Her second ability is called Body Check and it costs 11 Black AP. For this ability at level 450 and power level 5 she deals 15,764 damage plus 2,626 damage for each color of each friendly special tile on the board.

Her last ability is called Damning Evidence and is a Passive Blue AP ability. At level 450 and power level 5, Jessica gets the dirt on enemies with her camera which means at the start of the players turn, create a Red, Black or Blue enemy trap tile if fewer than 4 exist. When you match one, gain 3 AP in strongest color and deal 10, 123 damage. At the start of your turn, if you have at least 6 Blue AP, Jessica gets a lead on her subject, briefly revealing enemy Trap tiles.

Marvel.com: While Jessica often prefers to work along, what teammates would she work best with in-game?

Josh Austin: Jessica is strong with allies that create special tiles across different colors like Agent Coulson, Blade (Modern), Carnage, Gamora (Awesome Mix Vol. 2), Rocket and Groot (Awesome Mix Vol. 2) and more. She is also strong against enemies that creates trap tiles.

Take out the bad guys with Jessica Jones by downloading “Marvel Puzzle Quest” here and stay tuned to Marvel.com for more “Marvel Puzzle Quest” news and interviews.

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Entering Contest of Champions: Sentinel

Published Mar 1, 2018
By Ben Chabala

These mutant-hunting robots enter the Battlerealm this week!

A fleet of Sentinels make their way to “Marvel Contest of Champions” this week, fueled by ISO-8 energy and on a mission to bring mayhem to the arena. Big, bad, and ready to reduce players to their component parts, the Sentinels came to blast first and ask questions never. We talked to Kabam Art Director Gabriel Frizzera and Game Designer Erich Kohlweg and got the breakdown of all of Sentinel’s awesome abilities.

Marvel.com: It was only a matter of time before the mutant-hunting Sentinels made it to Battlerealm. But they’re not just chasing down mutants right?

Gabriel Frizzera: There’s a bit of a twist on this version of the Sentinels. They actually come from the future of The Contest, where a corrupt mutant elite are the ones imprisoning everyone else in prison camps, including their own kind. The Sentinels were their army… But the robots rebelled against their masters, and after dominating their own timeline, they have breached the other territories of the Battlerealm to exterminate all forms of life, be them mutant or not.

Marvel.com: What makes these Sentinels different than what our heroes have dealt with in the past?

Gabriel Frizzera: They are a new experiment for us. We wanted to create a new, more powerful kind of “grunt” to replace the Symbioids, which we love, but were getting a bit overused. So we created a different version of the Sentinel for every class in the game (which worked well in the story since Sentinels can adapt to various kinds of foes), and they’ll be populating all our game modes. But we had an extra character release slot in March, so we decided to have a special playable version, so the Summoners can add giant killer robots to their team!

Marvel.com: How did the team trick out these Sentinels for Contest of Champions? They look pretty similar to the metal monstrosities we know and love but I’m sure you all did something to set them apart.

Gabriel Frizzera: The Sentinels are one of the characters that is always changing. There are many versions of them and it’s very hard to pick a favorite. So, starting from the classic model from the original “Days of Future Past” storyline (the inspiration for this month’s event), we designed our own version. We call this one the “Mark-ISO”, since they have evolved to use ISO-8 as a power source. Their design is analogous to what Marvel has done to Iron Man in the last decade: from simple and “Super Hero-like”, Iron Man’s armor evolved to take cues from vehicle and industrial design. We did the same with the Sentinels, adding machine-shaped curves and panels but still paying homage to the original. Also, he’s BIG! Sentinels are supposed to be large, and although we can’t make them 30 feet tall without compromising gameplay, we made them our largest character to date.

Marvel.com: And does their enhanced weaponry match their new and improved sense of style? What makes them tick?

Erich Kohlweg: Sentinel is as a tanky Champion that builds up increased defensive and offensive abilities throughout the fight. Sentinel’s core ability, Target Analysis, allows it to analyze the target’s actions through their movements and attacks. Each time the target performs a consecutive action, Sentinel’s Attack, Armor, and Critical Resistance increases leading to the target becoming fully analyzed. Once fully analyzed, the duration of Debuffs that Sentinel inflicts with his abilities are all doubled! Sentinel is a Champion that can easily get out of control if not dealt with quickly.

Marvel.com: Overall they seem like a fairly straightforward addition to the roster, while being very difficult to bring down.

Erich Kohlweg: Sentinel has strong defense but even if they are broken, there’s still more to deal with. Sentinel’s Signature Ability provides valuable utility by reducing the effectiveness of target’s Power depletion abilities such as Power Burn. This is particularly good when combined with another of Sentinel’s abilities, Special Attack cost reduction as Sentinel analyzes a target.

Marvel.com: And teammates? Do any of their directives have them playing nice with any other champs?

Erich Kohlweg: Sentinel is a machine and has no “teammates” as it is only concerned with its own objectives. Pairing with a wide variety of Champions from almost every Class, Sentinel assimilates powerful abilities to overcome the exact Classes matching those that provided the ability. When Sentinel is paired with Ant-Man, Sentinel gains the ability to reduce Debuffs when facing Science Champions. This same structure applies with The Hood, Iceman, Kingpin, Green Goblin, and a quite few more!

Marvel.com: When can we grab Sentinel for ourselves?

Erich Kohlweg: As of today, March 1! Make sure to keep an eye out for the in-game message and you’ll be able to get your hands on Sentinel.

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Witness the clash of renowned Spider-Verse vampires in 'Spider-Man Unlimited'

Published Feb 28, 2018
By Christine Dinh

Morlun vs. Morbius!

Heroes of the Spider-Verse will fight Morlun and an inter-dimensional Sinister Six with a helping hand from Morbius, the Living Vampire in the latest update of “Spider-Man Unlimited,” available now on iOS and Android!

The latest update includes new rarity-based collections and a revamped Spider-Tiers system. In addition to the bloodthirsty Morbius, meet the devastatingly strong Mattie Franklin in her battle costume from Spider-Woman #9!

WHAT’S NEW?

CLASH OF VAMPIRES: Morlun, the Inheritor is no pushover, so fight this vampiric villian with a fanged friend of your own and add Morbius to your team of Spider-Verse heroes!

NEW RARITY-BASED COLLECTIONS: Collect and level up your characters to receive great new abilities.

In “Battlerealm,” each player will take control of one of the 13 available Marvel super heroes and create a play area containing different locations such as Arcane Arena, Wakandan Necropolis, Avengers Towers or the Savage Lands. Roll the dice to activate your powers and move across locations to gain points of their own and to take points from others.

Only one Summoner can be victorious in the Contest of Champions. Will it be you?

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Piecing Together Marvel Puzzle Quest: Shuri

Published Feb 21, 2018
By Ben Chabala

Channel brilliant Wakandan royalty in the hit mobile game!

Seen Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” in theaters yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Otherwise you’ll miss out on all the cool science shenanigans T’Challa’s brainiac sister Shuri pulls off, and the fine folks at D3 Go! translated into “Marvel Puzzle Quest.” We talked to Senior Producer Josh Austin to understand just what Shuri’s capable of.

Marvel.com: There are quite a few characters the team could have chosen to translate from Black Panther comics to “Marvel Puzzle Quest.” Why was Shuri the right woman for the job?

Josh Austin: Shuri is such a fun and awesome character in the “Black Panther” movie that the team really wanted to see her in Marvel Puzzle Quest. Shuri (Master Engineer) makes a great addition as the newest 4-star and because she has mastered the use of Vibranium, the team decided to make her the master of manipulating Fortified tiles in ways that we haven’t seen yet!

Marvel.com: Shuri has had a few different power sets in her life, from enhanced strength and senses as the Black Panther to mystic abilities in the current storyline, to her movie. What did the team focus on for the game?

Josh Austin: Shuri (Master Engineer) was inspired by the Black Panther movie with how she creates and enhances tech that the Wakandans use to make them better. In the game, this translates to her being the master of Fortified tiles. She can lower the cost of powers for the friendly team while increasing the power cost for enemies, stun enemies and deal additional damage by using fortified tiles on the board.

Marvel.com: Ok tell us about Shuri’s kit. What can she do?

Josh Austin: Her first ability is called Vibranium Tech which is a passive Blue Power. For this ability she uses the Fortified tiles on the board to increase the cost of AP for their powers while lowering the cost of friendly powers. At power level 5 level 270, this means 5 Fortified tiles on the board will cause enemy powers to cost 3 AP more, while friendly powers will cost 3 AP less to a minimum of 3.

Her next power uses the Twin Blasters seen in “Black Panther.” This power costs 11 Green AP to deal damage and destroy random tiles. If the destroyed tiles contain a Fortified tile, the enemy is stunned for a few turns, destroyed tiles deal damage but do not generate AP.

Her last power is called Vibranium Virtuoso and it costs 8 Red AP. For this power, Shuri fortifies friendly special or basic tiles and removes a random enemy Fortified special tile. Whenever the player matches a Fortified tile, this power passively deals additional damage.

Marvel.com: Wow Shuri is really focused on making the most of Fortified tiles. Was that just so she’d synegize with her brother, or was the team looking to explore more Fortified tile strategies?

Josh Austin: Anyone, in addition to her brother (Black Panther – King of Wakanda) that makes Fortified tiles will be a good fit for Shuri. This includes Green Goblin, Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Luke Cage (Power Man), and Iron Fist (Danny Rand).

Marvel.com: How would you build her? I feel like her covers might really depend on who your teammates are. Except for Vibranium Tech. That’s always gotta be maxed out right?

Josh Austin: I would go for 5/3/5 to use her two support abilities. Her blasters are really cool, but I would like to get the benefits of the lowering and raising of AP and that last power can also help with Fortified tile creation.

Marvel.com: When do we get to play her?

Josh Austin: Shuri (Master Engineer) will be released on February 22 and she will have a Shuri and Friends store that will be available between February 25 and March 2. In her debut event, Shuri has come to the aid of her brother to defend Wakanda in the Fight for Wakanda event. The event runs between February 22 and 27 and has been tweaked a bit from the first run of the event to improve play.

She will also have a S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Event between February 22 and March 1 and will be featured in the Prodigal Sun event running between February 26 and March 2. Her Versus Tournament is called Mother of Invention and runs between February 25 and 28.